MFMP to Verify Lugano Measurement Techniques

The MFMP is slated to begin an examination of the techniques used for testing Andrea Rossi/Industrial Heat’s latest incarnation of the “Hot Cat” reactor. Due to some concerns about the validity of the temperature measurements in the most recent third party test, they have embarked on an effort to verify or discount the measurements. According to the group’s Facebook page, they are slated to begin today (Tuesday, 2/3/15). This is an important set of tests by MFMP to help address these important issues. Additionally, it appears that they will try again to produce the excess heating effect.

The MFMP group notes the following questions they wish to answer with the experimentation.

Key questions to answer:

How well did the emissivity curve they used match various samples of our cast and purchased alumina?

Can the Williamson Pyrometer add insight about the actual emissivity and surface temperature?

With our best guess of alumina emissivity, how well can we match what the thermocouple is reading?

Does the pattern seen in the IR picture in the Lugano report indicated heat coming from inside making the brighter areas the spaces between the heater coils?

Does the Parkhomov report mean we may be able to see excess energy in a dog bone?

I haven’t heard much in terms of actual conclusions yet. They did find the emissivity may not have been accurate causing a gross overestimate of temperatures at the high end. Unfortunately, they smoked the thermal camera with a power surge. Part of the trouble is that they don’t know if the emissivity may have been different for the Rossi device. The upshot is likely that the COP was overestimated, but by how much, we probably can’t know unless the professors can take some of the data and re-run their calculations.

They exploded a cell last night right at the temp range where the reaction should have started according to Parkhomov. I would tend to think the explosion (or rather pop) was either chemical or mechanical failure due to over-pressure.

I have to add that in the most recent test with the explosion, the emissivity measured by the Williamson was actually lower than the value used in the Lugano test. So, it’s really not clear what conclusions we can draw from the MFMP’s work regarding the Lugano test. The outer tube in this case was a purchased tube without fins compared with the previous test being a custom-made dog bone by the MFMP.